ESTEVAN — After months of work, the refurbishment of Estevan’s water tower has entered the final stages.
Shane Bucsis, the manager of the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants, said crews have been coating the inside of the water tower and upper part of the bowl.
The scaffolding is expected to be removed from inside the bowl shortly – a process that is expected to take about a week. Then they will start to work on the floor level of the bowl, which should take roughly two to three weeks.
“We’re still waiting on cathodic protection to arrive, so they’re going to get done the majority of the work, and then install the cathodic protection,” said Bucsis.
The roof on top of the boiler house needs to be repaired as part of the project, and the hole that was created for access into the bowl needs to be plugged.
The renovations on the water tower started in the spring. The stand pipe and the drain line have been replaced. The beams have been repaired on the upper section of the bowl. A new platform ladder has been installed, and 90 per cent of the upper bowl has been spray coated.
The majority of the painting on the exterior is now finished, except for where scaffolding is set up. The city’s name, with quotation marks around Estevan, is back on the water tower.
“The colours, I tried to get as close to what was there before,” said Bucsis.
The project is being funded through a federal infrastructure fund (formerly the gas tax).
Unless there is what Bucsis called “crazy, crazy” weather in the next three weeks, he doesn’t foresee anything happening that would keep this project from being completed this year.
The weather delays could include really warm days, because the temperatures inside the water tower can reach 55-60 C.
An early snow would slow things down, but it wouldn’t deter the work from being completed, unless Estevan received a snowstorm like the one encountered earlier in the year, when everything was shut down. A thunderstorm would cause delays because they can’t work inside the tower during a storm.
The construction at the water tower did not cause significant problems for the Dennis Moore Centennial Park. The one area was fenced off, but the rest of the park has been open and the playground and spray park were accessible.
The water tower project caused a delay in the completion of resurfacing Smith Street. Most of the residential road received a fresh coat of asphalt in June, but the western portion of it did not. Bucsis said the city hopes to finish it this month.
